Warning: This article contains spoilers for Fargo season 5.
The Fargo season 5 finale delivered some surprising revelations about Ole Munch – or “Oola Moonk,” as it’s pronounced – and finally explained his much-teased backstory as a sin-eater. For the most part, Fargo season 5 focused on the rivalry between Midwestern housewife Dot Lyon and the abusive ex-husband she was trying to escape, Sheriff Roy Tillman. But the final scene of the final episode of the season – season 5, episode 10, “Bisquik” – instead focused on Munch, the down-on-his-luck career criminal who tried and failed to kidnap Dot in the season premiere and had to fight for his agreed-upon fee.
At the beginning of Fargo season 5, Munch was introduced as a freelance goon-for-hire. He was recruited by Tillman to capture his escaped wife Nadine (now living under the alias Dot Lyon) and bring her back to his ranch. The kidnapping went horribly wrong as Dot killed Munch’s partner and left Munch himself with horrific injuries before fleeing the scene. In the season finale, after a one-year time jump, Dot and her daughter Scotty are surprised to come home and find Munch waiting for them, eager to exact revenge for the foiled kidnapping.
Fargo Season 5 Ending Explained: What Happens To Dot & Roy
The Fargo season 5 finale wraps up all the storylines, including the intense conflict between Dot Lyon and her abusive ex, Sheriff Roy Tillman.
Fargo Season 5’s Oola Moonk Reveal Explained
One of the most confounding moments of Fargo season 5 arrived in episode 3, “The Paradox of Intermediate Transactions.” In the middle of a seemingly regular episode of Fargo, the show suddenly flashed back to a foggy village in Wales 500 years ago. The flashback showed a funeral in which a man who looked just like Munch was paid to eat a meal representing the deceased man’s sins. This is called a sin-eater; they eat the sins of the dead man so that the dead man will be granted access into Heaven.
At the time, it was unclear if this scene was some kind of dream sequence or a flashback to one of Munch’s ancestors or a hint that Munch was reincarnated. But the finale reveals that it was actually Munch himself, and he’s been cursed with immortality and gruesome debts ever since. As he sits down with the Lyon family for dinner, he tells them about his life as a sin-eater all those years ago, and explains that he’s been living with a curse ever since he ate the dead man’s sins.
Fargo Season 5’s 1500s Flashback Explained & How It Connects To Ole Munch
Fargo season 5 has a surprising flashback to Wales in the 1500s. But what does the flashback mean and how does it connect to Ole Munch?
Why Ole Munch Felt Like He Needed To Kill Dot As Part Of His Debt
In the penultimate episode of Fargo season 5, “The Useless Hand,” Munch freed Dot from the corpse pit on Tillman’s ranch so she’d have a fighting chance of escaping the battle with the FBI. This initially seemed to be an act of mercy. Munch seemed to have a change of heart and took pity on Dot after finding her in such a helpless position. However, Munch reveals in the finale that he only saved Dot from the pit because it wouldn’t be a fair fight if he left her in there.
Munch explains that his business with Dot is not finished, and won’t be finished until he kills her. He feels that he’s owed a pound of her flesh after she inflicted injuries on him for trying to kidnap her. Munch doesn’t see the hypocrisy of exacting revenge against someone who only hurt him in self-defense. In his narrow-minded worldview, made narrower and narrower by living with a curse for so many centuries, Munch thinks that he needs to kill Dot to achieve the inner peace that he’s been craving for 500 years.
How Dot Broke Oola Monk’s Curse With Bisquik
Dot challenges Munch’s assertion that he needs to kill her to settle their business and repay his cosmic debt. She gives Munch a long, compassionate speech about how certain debts can be forgiven and don’t need to be repaid. This ties into the season’s overarching theme of debt repayment. Dot’s mother-in-law, Lorraine, runs one of America’s biggest debt collection agencies and got rich by charging her cash-strapped clients extortionate rates of interest. Dot wants to break that cycle by insisting that debts can be forgiven and don’t always need to be paid.
Dot believes that Munch’s curse will be lifted if he eats another meal, this time made with love and care and offered to him freely, not as part of a spiritual agreement. She teaches him to make biscuits with a box of Bisquik and he joins the family for dinner. As he bites into a biscuit, he smiles for the first time. It was likely a very nice biscuit, because it was made with love, but the real reason for Munch’s elation in Fargo season 5’s final scene is that, with his consumption of the biscuit, the curse is lifted.
